Patrick McGoohan - The Prisoner

The Prisoner

In the face of McGoohan's intention to quit Danger Man, Grade asked if he would at least work on "something" for him. McGoohan gave him a run-down of what would later be called a miniseries, about a secret agent who resigns suddenly and wakes up to find himself in a prison disguised as a holiday resort. Grade asked for a budget, McGoohan had one ready, and they made a deal over a handshake early on a Saturday morning to produce The Prisoner. Apart from being the star, McGoohan was the executive producer, forming Everyman Films with series producer David Tomblin, and also wrote and directed episodes, in some cases using pseudonyms. The originally commissioned seven episodes were increased to seventeen.

The Prisoner spends the entire series trying to escape from The Village and to learn the identity of his nemesis, Number One. The Prisoner was a completely new, cerebral kind of series, stretching the limits of the established television formulae. Its influence has been echoed in Lost, Babylon 5, Nowhere Man, I-man, Tower Prep, The Truman Show, The Simpsons and ReBoot.

The main character, the unnamed Number Six, became McGoohan's most recognisable character. Unfortunately, it also became his prison. Number Six was so obsessively pro-individual that whenever McGoohan later played someone who had something to say about individuality or freedom, the character was often compared to his previous incarnation- for example, his portrayal of the warden in Escape from Alcatraz. "Mel Gibson will always be Mad Max, and me, I will always be a Number", he was once quoted as saying.

The cult of The Prisoner spawned many books, college courses, a quarterly magazine, and documentaries. There were several fan clubs—most notably "Six of One", which still honours the show annually with a convention in Portmeirion, North Wales, where the show's exteriors were shot. McGoohan was the honorary president. In the May 30, 2004 edition of TV Guide, The Prisoner was ranked seventh in a list of the "25 Top Rated Cult Shows Ever!" McGoohan's show outranked the likes of The Twilight Zone (#8) and Doctor Who (#18). TV Guide wrote, "Fans still puzzle over this weird, enigmatic drama, a Kafkaesque allegory about the individual's struggle in the modern age."